A prolific poet and translator, W.S. Merwin’s (1927—) style has changed over the years from traditional to free form. Merwin won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize for his first book, A Mask for Janus, published in 1952, and the Pulitzer Prize for his 1970 collection The Carrier of Ladders. Merwin currently lives in Hawaii; he is a devoted environmentalist and many of his poems take up ecological themes.